Photos by Chad Koenen

The Cultural Center in New York Mills hosted its 16th annual Kalevala Puppet Pageant on both Friday night at the corn feed and Saturday at the Finn Creek Festival. The Kalevala Puppet Pageant is a large-scale, street-theater style performance bringing to life characters and tales from the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. Performers use elaborate costumes and some even use stilts to act out the parts of the show. 

A blacksmith provided a number of demonstrations of the lost art of metal shaping during Finn Creek Festival.
Among the many guests at Finn Creek over the weekend was Jager Battalion Living History Group who live, breath and reenact Finnish history during wars dating back well over 100 years. A tent was set up to give guests at Finn Creek an idea of living conditions in the early 1900s.

Photos by Chad Koenen

A little bit of rain couldn’t slow down the annual Finn Creek Festival over the weekend. The festival highlighted the 50th anniversary of Finn Creek Mseum. The weekend included a close up view of old equipment, a talent showcase that was emceed by Adam Tervola Hultberg, homemade ice cream, as well as tractor pulls, saw mill and tours of many of the buildings at the museum.